Read George R.R. Martin’s Marvel Fan Letter That Started It All

Author George R.R. Martin may be one of the most popular authors and storytellers of our time thanks to the success of Game of Thrones, but, in his youth, he was a fan, just like us. He was a voracious reader of books and comics, soaking up the narrative juice that would power his literary career for 40-odd years (never let anyone tell you reading is a waste of time).

In a new History Channel two-part documentary titled Superheroes Decoded – airing Sunday, April 30 and Monday, May 1 – Martin reads aloud the letter he sent to Marvel Comics, a letter he credits with opening the doors to his future. Check out a clip from the documentary featuring Martin below!

Speaking with Rolling Stone in 2014, Martin had this to say about the letter

“When Marvel hit with the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man, I started writing letters — all those books had letters columns — and a few of them got printed. In those days when they printed your letter they put your whole address in it. People started seeing my address and I got letters from other comic fans around the country, and I started getting fanzines. Then I thought, ‘Hey, I could write something for these fanzines. They’re pretty bad; I could write something just as good as that.’ I did, then my stuff started getting published.”

The full letter – plus Stan Lee’s response – is below!

Credit: Marvel

Martin is of course hard at work on the sixth volume, The Winds of Winter, in his seven-part fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, which fans have eagerly awaited since the A Dance with Dragons‘ publication in summer 2011.

But fans won’t need to wait to see the conclusion (well, a conclusion) to the saga he started. Thrones officially went beyond the books last year with its sixth season and, barring a writing spurt by Martin, is all set to bring the story to its conclusion with two shortened final seasons.

Game of Thrones returns for its penultimate seventh season, consisting of seven episodes, on Sunday, July 16, at 9 p.m. on HBO. The eighth and final season will consist of 6 episodes and will air in summer 2018.

‘Game Of Thrones’: Everything We Know So Far About Season 7

In Westeros, everybody knows “winter is coming.” But in our world, it’s summer we have to watch out for, because that is when Game of Thrones returns to HBO.

Only 13 episodes remain before Thrones exits stage left. Seven of those episodes comprise season 7 and six is confirmed to be the count for the eighth and final season next year. Season 6 left off with two of its biggest and most consequential episodes – “Battle of the Bastards,” which depicted the most expensive battle scene yet filmed for the fantasy drama, and “The Winds of Winter,” which takes it title from the unpublished sixth novel of the planned seven that comprise the show’s basis, author George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, and featured the largest slaughter of named characters in the show’s bloody history.

Now, the game has been reset yet again. Jon Snow has been crowned King in the North by his countrymen, Cersei has seized the Iron Throne in the South, and Daenerys Targaryen sails to Westeros to reclaim it with a massive, multicultural invasion force. And all the while, the Night King, his fellow White Walkers, and their zombie army descend on the Wall, seeking to bring it down and spread wintry death to all of Westeros. After years of war and desolation, can the people of the continent come together in time to avert apocalypse?

We’ll find out come summer. Click Nextto scroll through Westeros, from Beyond-the-Wall all the way to aptly-named Oldtown in the south.